New Jersey awarded a $12.7 million tax break to Sandy Alexander, Inc., a Clifton communications company Tuesday to expand at its current location, instead of moving 216 jobs to Rockland County.

The company, which supplies design, printing and marketing services, said it has outgrown its current 134,000-square-foot production office and headquarters in Clifton, and is looking for a place to expand when its lease expires in May 2015.

The options included expanding in Clifton or moving to Orangeburg, N.Y., which is offering the company $14 million in incentives to move and take the existing workforce with it, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA), which awarded the tax breaks, reported at its monthly meeting.

Sandy Alexander said it also would create 74 new jobs, with a median wage of about $59,000, at the new facility, wherever it is located. The company declined to comment.

The company certified that the 216 jobs are "at risk" of being moved out of New Jersey. The award is partly contingent on them staying in the state, creating the new jobs and investing $2.8 million in the project.

The tax break was awarded under the Grow New Jersey Assistance program, in which incentives intended to stimulate investment and the creation of jobs, or prevent them leaving the state, are granted in the form of tax credits to be used to reduce a company's tax obligation. An award does not mean the company will accept the break, and often they do not.

The company declined to comment.

The EDA also awarded Jimmy's Cookies, of Fair Lawn, a $2 million loan to help the company move into a new production facility in Clifton.

The cookie manufacturer's existing, 38,000-square-foot facility, is now too small due to the company's expansion, and it plans to relocate the entire operation to an 87,280-square-foot building, the company told the EDA.

The authority also awarded a $1.7 million loan to Megas Yeeros, a Lyndhurst-based manufacturer of Gyros and other Greek-style products, to help it expand in the U.S. market.